


Until the Sun Burns Out

by The_Gong_of_Doom



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2014-03-16
Packaged: 2017-12-14 12:45:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/837016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Gong_of_Doom/pseuds/The_Gong_of_Doom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A "Missing Scene" story. One complaint from many FNL fans is that we never got to see Eric give Matt his blessing/permission to marry Julie. We all know they'd get together and talk about it and everyone has their own version but this story is how it actually happened.</p>
<p>NO ONE DENIES THIS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A number of characters make appearances, including but not limited to Tami, Julie, Gracie Belle, Tim and Buddy as well as a few surprises. However, because this story is set strictly within the universe of the TV show, the dynamic wheaten terrier duo of Payton and Jordan Taylor who are in some of my other stories will NOT be making an appearance.
> 
> As usual GUSHING LOVE and SASSY LOATHING are the only acceptable reviews. Oh who am I kidding, say whatever the hell you want, however the hell you want to say it.

“I wanna play with my toys!” Gracie shouted as she shook a box labeled **GRACIE’S TOYS 1of 2**. “I wanna watch Nemo.”

Julie sighed. “Come on I think your Nemo DVD is in the living room. As she walked out of Gracie’s room Julie muttered, “I hope it is,” under her breath. "Would you like some juice?”

“Yes please.”

“Why don’t you go over and turn the TV and DVD player on and then sit on the couch and I’ll bring you the juice.”

“May I have some crackers and cheese?”

“Sure, but I’m gonna cut up the cheese for you, okay?”

“I guess.”

“Do you want any cheese melted on the crackers?”

“Ummm, three crackers with melted cheese please.”

“Three it is.”

As she waited for the cheese to melt Julie walked into the living room and checked the DVD player. Sure enough the _Finding Nemo_ DVD was inside. She smiled recalling how her dad had finally had to give up his beloved VCR and get a DVD player.

  _It had been a little over three months ago, Eric had settled in his chair, ready to watch some game tape. He pressed play on the remote and....nothing. He shook his head and pressed play again. Nothing. As he got up and walked to the VCR he grumbled under his breathe. He bent and noticed something smeared on the front. It looked like peanut butter. “What the hell?” He pressed the eject button, but nothing happened, so he pressed it again. Tami came and sat on the couch._

_“What are you doing sugar?”_

_“Trying to figure out what’s wrong with the VCR. It won’t play or eject and there’s peanut butter all over the front of it.”_

_“Uh oh.”_

_“What do you mean, ‘uh oh?’ Uh oh what?”_

_“Gracie Belle, would you come in here please?”_

_Gracie came into the living room and stood in front of Tami.”_

_“Yes?”_

_“Gracie did you do something to the VCR?”_

_“Like what?”_

_“Well, something that makes it not work. Your dad needs to watch his game tape and the VCR isn’t working.”_

_Eric poked his finger in the cassette slot. “What the hell?” he withdrew it, then poked two fingers in the slot and pulled. His fingers held a piece of very squished peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He turned to Gracie and Tami holding the piece of sandwich towards Tami and Gracie. “Did you put this in the VCR Gracie Belle?”_

_“No.”_

_Eric spluttered. “Wha—what do you mean no. I sure didn’t put a sandwich in there and neither did your_ _mother.”_

_“I put three sandwiches in.”_

_Eric’s mouth opened, closed, he tried to speak again, then just sat in his chair and ran his free hand through his hair._

_Tami turned her head so neither Gracie or Eric would see her smile then said, “Why did you put the sandwiches in the VCR Gracie?”_

_“I wasn’t hungry right then, but I wanted them to be fresh, but not cold. If I wanted them cold they’d be in the fridge.”_

_“Okay I can sort of understand that, but have you ever seen me or your dad or Julie putting any food into the VCR?”_

_“No. But I haven’t seen you **not** put any food in there either.”_

_Eric got up and walked out of the room saying, “I’m goin’ to Buddy’s to have a beer.”_

Julie and Matt had laughed until they could hardly breathe when Tami told them the story a few weeks later, but Julie had acted mildly outraged that Gracie hadn’t been punished at all. Tami had said, “Well, like I told your dad, no one ever told Gracie that you shouldn’t put food in the VCR. WE did tell her you don’t put anything in the DVD player except DVD’s.”

The microwave’s dinging brought Julie back to the present. She took the plate of crackers and cheese out and let it sit on the counter for a minute, then added more crackers and cheese and brought it over to Gracie, along with her glass of juice.

The sliding glass door opened and Tim and Matt came.  “Tim, you’re not gonna set it on fire.”

“C’mon Seven, nothings gonna happen.”

“Set what on fire?”

Matt and Tim looked at Julie.

“There’s a big wasp nest on the grill out there.”

“And you wanted to get rid of it by setting it on fire.” Julie rolled her eyes.

Tami and Eric walked into the living room, Eric holding a stack of unmade boxes under one arm.

“Setting what on fire?”

“The wasp nest attached to the grill.”

“What? No, no. Tim Riggins. That wasp nest is attached to the grill. Which is attached to the propane tank. Which is next to the side of this house. Which we are trying to sell. And if the fire from the wasp nest happens to heat up the propane tank and it explodes, it’s gonna put a big old hole in this house which we are trying to sell, not to mention let all the wasps come inside and sting all of us. So we are **not** going to be setting the wasp nest on fire.” Tami glared at Tim. “You’re smarter than that Tim. Much smarter. And you know better.”

Tim looked sheepish. “Yeah, you’re right, you’re right. I just thought that the tank might be empty. The grill hasn’t been used for a while, that’s why the wasps built the nest. Sorry.

“And you,” Tami said, looking at Matt. “Were you actually going to let him do this?”

“Well, um, no, I mean, um, no, we were just talking we didn’t know if you had any Raid or whatever.”

“Of course we do, right Eric?”

“I think we have a can in the garage. Top shelf on the right. Tami’s right, you’re smarter than that, Tim.”

“Sorry. And this isn’t on Matt, it’s on me.”

“A’ight, Matt c’mon with me, I gotta clear out the rest of my stuff from East Dillon and I need another pair of hands.”


	2. Chapter 2

Eric and Matt got into the blue Explorer and backed out of the driveway. The radio came on automatically, “ _Taylor has up and left us again. And he’s moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I---I just don’t know that I understand this. What do you think? Let’s go to Gene.”_

_“Hey Sammy. Coach Taylor is a traitor and a coward. I’m glad that sumbitch is gone. He ju—“_

_“Whoa now, let’s watch the language. Traitor?  I wouldn’t call him that and as for him being a coward…. How do you figure that?”_

_“He took us to State five years ago, and before we even played the game he had taken that job at Texas State. Then he came back and got Coach Lester fired before we’d played three games and then he left us again for East Dillon and then refused to come back and coach at Dillon and tha—“_

_“Whoa, whoa now. I’ll give you that part about Coach taking that job at Texas State before we played the State game five years ago, that was a knife in the back alright, and he did have something to do with Lester going, but I think that was more Buddy Garrity and the boosters. As for his leaving to coach East Dillon, that’s not right. He got fired by Joe McCoy ‘cause he wouldn’t promise that JD would start and that Wade Aikman would be offensive coordinator and play caller. Coach Taylor was gonna keep Coach McGill in that slot._

_“Now, as for his not coming back to coach at Dillon this year, I have to say and this is hard, but I can’t blame him. He’s been jerked around by the boosters more times than Matt Saracen was jerked in and out of the starting QB position, and I don’t think he would stand to work for and be paid by them even if they paid him a million dollars.”_

Matt turned the radio down. “Why, why do you listen to that? Doesn’t it get you upset or angry? I mean, I never even read the paper after our games or during the season.”

“But you heard about it anyway, right? ‘Cause your grandmother read all the articles and she’d read them to you.”

“Yeah.”

“Does that stuff make me angry? Well I certainly don’t like all that press conference nonsense that you have to deal with during the run up to State, that’s nothing but a distraction, like I don’t have enough of those already. Plus those reporters…” Eric shook his head, “they ask some of the dumbest questions.”

“Well, that’s because you never tell them anything and you told us never to tell them anything. They’ve got a job to do just like you.”

“Yeah, but asking me specific questions about what plays I’m gonna run or what our game plan is? C’mon now. And it’s the same in college and the pros. The coaches do talk and visit with each other in the off season and such and really there isn’t all that much variation in the NFL, every team runs some version of the West Coast offense, the language is the only thing that changes from team to team.”

“Yeah, I didn’t like the press conference stuff much either, but what about Slammin’ Sammy and his kind of talk radio, does that upset you?”

Eric sighed. “It’s complicated. They know some but not a lot about the deep stuff that goes on in a team. But sometimes, sometimes you learn something about another team, a caller from Arnett Meade would call up and while they were insulting us or me, they’d let slip that a certain player was injured. It didn’t happen very often but it was nice when it did, you file it away for the game against them that season.”

“They don’t have that sort of thing in Philadelphia do they? They certainly don’t in Chicago. I mean, there is a show on one of the stations that shows highlights from the high school games on Saturday night, but all the sports talk shows are about the Bears or Cubs or Bulls or ESPN stuff.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Philly. Honestly, going by what the passes for fans on the radio there, I’m glad there isn’t much coverage of high school football on the radio or TV. But it’s a bit double edged, because there isn’t much coverage in the press makes it hard to recruit.”

“Isn’t that illegal? I mean, you’re at a public school and I thought only private schools could recruit.”

Eric glanced over at Matt. “Yes and no. C’mon now, you know there was recruiting going on all the time, I know you and the other players talked about Voodoo when he suddenly showed up.”

“Yeah, but most of that was just about what an asshole he was being. I mean, he was good; he was more athletic than I am, I’ll give him that, but it was like he was so good he didn’t need to listen to anyone. Kind of the opposite of JD McCoy.”

“That’s a good point. JD, you could teach him. He’d been coached up since he was born, but he was a nice kid, I…I don’t understand what happened to him over that summer, he kind of turned in Voodoo. I was never into recruiting, well I was, but almost all of it was because Buddy would be hatching and starting some scheme behind my back and go off sweet talking some kid and his mother and I’d only find out about after he’d tied me into it three different ways, and no matter what happened to me, he always seemed to end up sitting in that chair in his office or at the bar smiling with that twinkle in his eye. From what I’ve heard from talking to some of the coaches in Philly, recruiting isn’t really an issue among the public schools and isn’t really cutthroat among the private schools, though they said I should look out for one private that has a reputation for poaching players from public school.” Eric pulled into a parking place, turned the key and got out of the car. “C’mon and bring those boxes.” Matt reached behind him and got the cardboard boxes in the back seat then followed Eric inside.

“Just put the boxes on the desk.” Matt did so and looked around. The two whiteboards were pristine, like they’d never been used. He looked out the door into the locker room. The lockers were newly painted and there was a large painting of a red Lion on one of the walls with the words **State Champions 2010** written underneath.

“Hey.”

Matt looked up and Eric tossed a football to him. Matt caught it and held in in his hand. Eric walked out of the office and looked around the locker room, then walked back and picked up the boxes on the desk. “I guess that’s it.” He walked out and after locked the door after Matt came out. They got in the SUV, and drove off, Matt rolling the football back and forth on his lap.

“When was the locker room painted and everything?”

“We finished up about a month ago.”

“Why?” Eric glanced over at Matt. “I mean, there aren’t two teams in Dillon anymore, right? Just the Panthers.”

“For now. If they brought the team back at East Dillon once they can do it again, even if it’s only for a couple of years. And when they do bring the Lions back, they’re gonna have a nice clean locker room and a decent field to play on.”

“How, I mean isn’t the reason the team was shut down because there wasn’t enough money?”

“Yes and no. There were some budget issues, but it was also because a lot of the Panther’s boosters couldn’t stand the fact that we beat them two years in a row, especially last year when they had JD and Aikman coaching them. I got a promise from Buddy that someone’s gonna go in every month or so and vacuum and clean the locker room, should be easy since it isn’t being used and for the field to be watered and cut. And he and some of the Lions boosters pooled some money and put it in a trust to pay for that.”

“Okay, but why would Buddy want that, I mean he’s back as head of the Panther’s boosters, isn’t he?”

“Buddy Garrity loves and is obsessed by high school football, which given what else that obsession could have been focused on, isn’t such a bad thing. He can be annoying as hell, and I’m pretty sure he’s gonna be calling me in Philly at least three times a week trying to cajole me to come back and coach at Dillon or East Dillon or wherever he’s head of the boosters. I want to say he goes with a winner, but it’s not quite that. If he hadn’t known some of the old players from East Dillon I doubt we’d have had a team for the two years that we did. He can talk anybody into just about anything, and he means well, well most of the time he does.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Will you play with me, Tim?”

Tim glanced at Gracie “Ummm, I’d like to G-Belle, but I have to do a little work in the backyard first.”

“Can I help?”

“Not this time. And you can’t be out there with me; you need to stay inside, right mom?”

Tami raised an eyebrow. “Yes, Gracie, Tim’s right, you need to stay inside for a while. _Finding Nemo_ isn’t over yet, is it?”

“No.”

“Tell you what, you stay here and watch _Nemo_ and when I get done out back we’ll play.”

“Can we play dolls?”

A horrified look rolled over Tim’s face and he looked at Tami who was smiling and Julie, who was not.

Julie was smirking. And snickering.

 Tim could feel his face heating up so he shoved his hair in front of his eyes and said, “Sure, you me **and** Julie can all play dolls. You cool with that Jules? You’re not too big to play dolls are you?”

“Of course not.”

“You sure, ‘cause that snickering says otherwise.”

“I play dolls with Gracie sometimes, especially dress up.”

“Well, when I’m done the two of you can show me this dress up thing.” Tim opened the sliding glass door stepped through on the patio, and closed the door behind him.

Tami touched Julie’s arm. “Let’s go sit out front for a bit.” Julie followed Tami into the garage and helped her get two chaise lounges down from the wall. They set them up on the front lawn, Tami lying on hers with a sigh.

“Where do you think dad and Matt went?”

“Well the shovel’s still in the garage so you don’t have to worry about Matt being buried in the end zone at East Dillon.”

“Mom!”

“I think they went over to East Dillon to get the last of your dad’s things and then went somewhere to have a little Matt chat.”

“Oh God.”

“Hey, it’s not what you think. I’m pretty sure he’s going to apologize and explain that whole ‘No until the sun burns out,’ thing from last year. You do understand why that bugged your dad so much, all the stuff he had going on.”

“Yeah. But I feel like dad would have said the same thing anyway, even if he wasn’t getting ready for State and all that other stuff.”

“That’s---I guess that’s fair. But you have to look at it from his, from our point of view, we hadn’t seen Matt in nine months and then it was just me running into him and his mom and grandmother at the grocery store for ten minutes and then he turns up at our house without calling  an---“

“Oh c’mon. No one calls ahead around here. I never heard you complain to dad when he had players showing up on our doorstep at all hours.”

“I know it’s like no one in Dillon has a phone. Anyway, Matt turns up and whisks you away to the Alamo Freeze and proposes to you and well you know the rest.”

“Mom, it’s not like he ever would have proposed to me at our house in front of you guys. Dad would have impaled him with the Christmas tree. Can you think of a situation where dad would have said yes or given his approval?”

Tami squinted and chewed her lip. “Maybe in a couple of years. Say your last year of college.”

“Why? So I’d have more time to find myself or experiment with different guys? I was gonna transfer somewhere else at the end of the school year anyway. Not that the proposal was this magic ticket for me to transfer to Chicago. These days you don’t really date anymore anyway, it’s like everyone hangs out and does stuff in groups, except for hooking up.”

“Speaking of finding yourself, you went to Chicago instead of going straight back to school.”

The sentence hung in the air.

“How did you know?”

 

* * *

 

 

Eric pulled the Explorer into a parking space behind the bleachers. “Bring the ball,” he said as he got out and started walking towards the field. Matt caught up with him and they both stared at the football field and stands with the attached press box and the scoreboard and Jumbotron.

Eric looked around warily. “You’re looking for Buddy Garrity, right?”

“I’m not looking for him; I’m lookin’ for the absence of him.” Eric walked onto the field. “Let’s throw the ball around a little.”

Eric and Matt stood about 15 yards apart and began tossing the ball between them. “Which ring do you wear, your Dillon High one or the East Dillon one?”

“Both of them. I switch up every few days, least I try to. Sometimes I’ll wear one for a week. Overall I’ve worn the Dillon one the longest, but I’ve probably worn the East Dillon one the most lately. You don’t wear yours?”

“I did at first, but it felt weird and was messing up my drawings, least it looked that way. I wore it when we went to State two years ago and I wore it at the State game last year. I sometimes wear it if Julie and I go out to dinner or to a movie or show. I keep it in the box on our dresser. Hey I heard Gracie and Mrs. Coach talking about a dog are you gettin’ one?”

Eric grimaced for a second but then grinned. “Maybe---hell change that to probably. Gracie put it on her wish list for Santa that she wanted a puppy, but since Tami helped her write it I think it’s more Tami’s idea. “

“Have you been looking at breeders around here? Or are you gonna get a shelter dog?”

“We’re getting a puppy not a shelter dog. Not with Gracie being so little, that’s a problem with shelter dogs, least according to what Tami’s found on the Internet, though I’m sure there’s also just as much stuff sayin’ the opposite. What she’s been reading says that one of the main reason people bring dogs to the shelter is that they also have small kids and the kid gets to poking and grabbing and punching the dog and the dog growls and bares it’s teeth, but of course the kid doesn’t know what that means so they keep on and the dog has enough and nips or bites and it’s off to the shelter with it, just waiting for another family with small kids to come around. Now I think it’s a good thing that people do take dogs from shelters, but I just can’t see us doing that. We’re getting a purebred, not from a puppy mill. And if we do get a dog it’s gonna be after we have settled in in Philly. No way I’m gonna drive halfway across the country with Gracie and a new puppy. If we get one it won’t be until we’ve been in Philly for at least sic months.”

“What breed?”

“Soft coated wheaten terrier. Tami saw one in our new neighborhood in Philly and fell in love, asked the owners a million questions. They’re about fifty pounds, soft coat, they don’t shed, which is always good, wheat colored coat of course, good with children, they’ve been using them as therapy dogs for kids in Ireland for a couple of decades. They can take a decent roughhousing and not get to snapping or biting. They can be strong willed and have a thing about jumping when they get excited and greet people.”

“Well, you’re pretty good at dealing with strong willed people. Least most of the time.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, Buddy Garrity is pretty strong willed and he seemed to kind of roll over you.”

Eric glared at Matt and ran his hand through his hair. “The thing you have to understand and know about Buddy is that he is gonna have at least five different schemes and plots and plans going on in various stages. Some of ‘em have been going on for years, some---“

“Like the mailbox in the field.”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t bet against him putting that mailbox there the week after he graduated from Dillon. Then stuff like bringing in Voodoo. Thing is I didn’t know about any of them until it was too late. Buddy would take me out for a drink and tell me his latest scheme and whatnot and then the next day I’d be getting a call from the state athletic board and spend the next three weeks tryin’ to save my job and the season. And every time Buddy’s standing off to the side professing his innocence to everyone. But we all knew he had something to do with it. It comes with being head of the boosters. Other people may suggest under the table type stuff to you, but the head of the boosters is the one who has to lay out the money and such for it and set it in motion.”

“You know he’s gonna be calling you at least twice a week in Philadelphia trying to get you to come back here and be coach.”

“It’s gonna take him a while. We’re upgrading to i-phones and getting new numbers and Tami and I aren’t telling him our home number. I haven’t told him what school I’m coaching at in Philly and he’s not gonna hear from anyone, right?”

“I haven’t seen him since State.”

“I figure he’ll call every high school in Philly or just look it up on the Internet. Most every school has that info on the Internet now. I just hope he holds off for a few weeks.”

“Can you see yourself ever coming back and coaching at Dillon?”


	4. Chapter 4

“I called your room that night and your roommate said you weren’t there and hadn’t come back. And yes, your dad knows, but I didn’t tell him right then. What happened?”

“I---Derek told me that he had this cabin in Kentucky that he would use when he wrote his papers and stuff and I guess he was living there after he and his wife separated. And I was wasn’t driving there, but I wasn’t going back to school either, I mean you could get to them both by the same road kind of, I mean—“

“You were just starting out.”

“Yeah. And he called me and I asked him if he’d come here to get me to go back to school or to get me back.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“He, he said it was the second one.”

Tami looked over and saw a tear run down Julie’s cheek and another catch in her eyelash. She reached over and took Julie’s hand.

“I just felt so awful, like all these things at once, anger and rage and sick and used. Used more than anything else. Because his wife was right, I wasn’t the only one, the only student he fooled around with.”

“You felt taken for granted.”

“Yeah, like I was just someone to have sex with because his wife wouldn’t. So I turned the car around and then I pulled over to the side of the road and cried for about fifteen minutes, then yelled at him for another ten.”

“Not over the phone, I hope.”

“No, but part of me still wishes I had still been on the phone with him. But I couldn’t go back to school yet. I—I don’t know why, I just felt like everyone would be pointing at me and talking about me behind my back.”

“You don’t think that goes on anyway? You can’t have forgotten the gossip that was passed around Dillon High about Tyra or Lyla cheating on Jason with Tim.”

“That’s what I mean. I saw that website about Lyla, and I just thought Derek’s wife might do something like that.”

“Honey, college is like high school in some ways as far as gossip go, but it’s not as insular an environment as high school is. Yes, you were gonna be on the front of people’s minds for a little while and yes people would have talked about you, but something else would have come along, some speaker would come to campus or there’d be a big protest, something would come along and your drama would fade away. And would you really want to hang out with anyone who brought it up?”

“No. Anyway, I couldn’t go back yet, but I knew I couldn’t come back here, dad would have flipped and I’d already made him late for a game. Tyra wasn’t an option; I wasn’t gonna crash in her dorm room. That left Matt in Chicago.”

“Did you know where he lived?”

“Yeah, he’d written his address down when he was here for Thanksgiving. But I didn’t have directions so I stopped outside of Chicago for gas and spent half an hour with the cashiers figuring out where to go.” Julie smiled. “They were so nice. One of them offered to lead me there, but after I found out it would be the opposite of where they lived I just asked for really good directions. They even told me how many stoplights and the best lanes to be in and the best place to park. I got there and parked and I sat in the car for about ten minutes, then I spent another ten minutes standing in the hallway outside his apartment.

“I was so scared. He told me his hallway smelled like coffee because of the bistro beneath him and it did. I think that’s what kept me from leaving and calmed me down.

“He didn’t ask me why I wasn’t at school—well, not at first. I spent a couple of days being a tourist, going to the Bean, which is this cool sculpture, having my first deep dish pizza---“ Julie got up and walked to the front of the yard and stood there for a moment looking down the street, then sat back down.

“I told him about Derek.” Tami nodded her head ever so slightly. “He wasn’t mad, he said that we weren’t together or dating or going out or anything. He said he wasn’t my parents.”

Tami and Julie both laughed, then Julie frowned. “Then the next night we were having spaghetti and I was telling him about the Bean and how cool it was and he asked me what I was doing there. And I said I was telling him about my day, and he said no, why are you here in Chicago? He said that he loved having me there and all, but what about college and did you guys even know I was there and that it kind of seemed like I was running away from things and as much as he cared about me he wasn’t going to be my safety net.”

“That’s a hard thing to say to someone you care about. And a hard thing to hear.”

 

* * *

 

 

“No. Buddy could offer me two hundred thousand dollars a year and I’d say no. He already offered a hundred and fifty thousand and I turned that down flat. I just couldn’t because the boosters never had my back.”

“Well, you did go behind them when you went to Texas State. They didn’t find out about that until after you’d taken the job.”

“That’s fair. But even after we got to State your senior year, there were rumblings that I shouldn’t have benched JD in the second half.”

“Why did you?”

“I remembered the State game against Voodoo, the last play, when you came over and laid out what you had in mind. Even though we hadn’t practiced it, you saw something in their defense. You never were one to sit on the bench. You might sit to get a drink or catch your breath, but you were up on the sidelines watching the other team’s offense. JD, he’d sit on the bench and listen to his dad yelling stuff at him. And during that State game you were watching JD and what he was doing and how the rest of the team stopped listening to him. They never did that to you. You always had command of that huddle.”

“Which team are you prouder of, my team that won State or this East Dillon team?”

Eric tossed the ball in the air. “I’m proud of all the teams I’ve coached.”

“I know that, and I know you don’t like have a ranked list of them or anything jus—“

“East Dillon. Because we had to build up from nothing. There hadn’t been a football program there for over fifteen years. Joe McCoy and the Dillon boosters were tryin’ to redraw the district lines every day, and they inherited the mailbox. The field was dirt and rocks and broken glass and sand. The locker room had a couple raccoons and opossums living in it. The weight room was bad. No training room. No uniforms. No coaching staff for the first few weeks. No boosters to speak of.

“When I started as head coach at Dillon, I came to a team that had the number one ranked QB in the state and number four in the country with Jason, the third ranked running back in Smash, Riggins, a good defense and you on the bench. We had this field, and all the other stuff,” Eric waved his hand at the bleachers and the school that lay behind them, “and the boosters and Buddy. The only place for us to go was down. With East Dillon we were at the bottom and Joe tried to keep us there. I’m proud of all my teams and all my boys.

“But I think my proudest moment as a coach was the second half of the State game your senior year. You came out and took it to the other team. Watching y’all march up and down the field and come all the way back and then go ahead…it was like the Super Bowl a couple years back, when the Patriots were undefeated.  Just a little too much time left on the clock. I meant every word of what I said to y’all in the locker room after that game and I wanted everyone’s family to hear what I said.

“How’s the art gallery doing?”

“Good, it---it’s good. They asked me to give some tours after hours a few times and they want me to record a voice over tour.”

“Voice over tour?”

“Yeah, it’s a thing they’re starting to do in a lot of museums, you can rent a set of headphones for five dollars and there’s like an i-pod thing that you plug into and walk around and someone talks about the paintings. It’s a lot better than having a couple people have to talk all day; you can lose your voice pretty quickly.”

Eric scratched his cheek as he thought. “Well, isn’t that kind of limiting? To me the idea of a museum is that you can wander around at your own pace and look at whatever you want to or not look at stuff in whatever order you choose, with this tour thing you have to follow a set path, right?”

“Yeah, but you don’t have to do the guided tour, it’s just an option. You are right, they don’t talk about every piece, but our gallery is trying to fix that by having different voice overs. Mine’s focused on drawings and paintings; someone else is doing the voiceover for sculptures. I’m also an assistant, well an assistant to an assistant to a visiting professor at the Art Institute and I do caricatures for a few hours every other weekend at Millennium Park, least I try to. I made over two thousand dollars when the music festival was there.”

“What music festival?”

“Lollapalooza.”

Eric nodded.  “That’s the one that went around the country.”

“It used to, now it’s put down roots in Chicago.”

“You ever go to any games?”

“Which team?”

“Cubs, Bears, White Sox, Blackhawks, Bulls.”

“I did go to a Cubs game, sat in the bleachers,” Matt shook his head. “I never understood why people need to get drunk or high to enjoy a game or a concert. I mean if you need to do that in order to have fun, why go at all, just get drunk at your house or a bar or whatever? Now people have this belief that if you buy a ticket that gives to right to stand up and scream profanity for three hours. I haven’t been to a Bears game, I thought maybe I could get tickets for the five of us, you, Mrs. Taylor, Gracie and me and Julie for next season, we might even get in one of the luxury suites. One of the Bears coaches comes into the gallery every now and then,” Matt grinned. “I’ve tried to chat him up a little.”

“You flash him your ring?”

“No-no, I mean, I was wearing it one day that he came in, I wasn’t thinking about it, he noticed it and so I told him. He knew about you and Jason and said the Bears were keeping an eye on Smash. He also wanted to know why I wasn’t playing in college.”

“That’s always bugged me as well. You never came to me or any of the other coaches asking us if we would talk to this or that coach. It---I was disappointed.”

“Well, I knew wasn’t good enough for division one, well maybe at  a place like Wake Forest or New Mexico or Northern Illinois, but even then I’d probably sit on the bench for a couple of years. I’d definitely have had to walk on, and division one football is a full time job for the players, you know that, between practices, weight training, film and meetings.”

“Well why didn’t you sit down with Mrs. Taylor and me after dinner some night when you were a senior? We’d have done everything we could to find a school for you and I’m sure you could have gotten at least a partial scholarship and definitely some financial aid.”

Matt bent down and picked at the turf. “I—I was done, I guess. I mean, I still love to throw a football around and have a catch; I sometimes play in a touch tackle game at one of the parks on the weekend. I love football and I gave it everything I had. I know I was never gonna make the NFL and I never wanted to play in the arena league or anything like that. And I honestly didn’t know what I was gonna do as far as college went. Grandma was, you know, getting worse and I wasn’t gonna leave her there with my mom. I mean, they were better at getting along, but there was still a lot of tension, you know, my Grandma has her routines and likes things a certain way, like who you have at QB1.”

Eric grinned. “I thought that meeting in the supermarket was a setup between you and Julie.  Your grandma’s never been shy about speaking her mind. She and your mom have made a peace of sorts?”

“I—I guess. I mean grandma still has her spells and she’s in them longer and longer, but the medicine helps some. She even went along and helped my mom pack up her house. Turns out she really likes dream catchers, she’s got four of ‘em in her room and at least one in every other room in the house.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Yeah, and I didn’t want to hear him say it so I stormed off.”

"C’mon now, we Taylor ladies, don’t storm off, we storm sashay off.” A smile flitted across Julie’s face for a few seconds.

“Ok, I storm sashayed off and told him I needed some air.“

“Where did you go?”

“I walked around the block and then sat in the bistro place and ate a cinnamon brownie thing and had a big glass of chocolate milk.”

“Now that sounds nice.”

“Oh my god, it was **so** good. And while I was sitting there and while I walked I thought about what he said and he was right, I was running away from things. So I bought one of the brownie things for Matt, then went back to his apartment and we talked. I told him I was sorry and that he was right and he told me he loved me and cared about me and that it was gonna be hard to go back to school, but that I could always call you or dad or him and talk.

"Always.

“And I guess it was then, maybe that night when I fell back in love with Matt. Or maybe I never was out of love with him. Things---they just felt smoother.”

“Were you surprised when he proposed?”

“What---yeah of course I was surprised.”

“You had no idea? I mean you two stayed in touch after you did go back to school.”

“Yeah, we emailed every night and texted a lot during the day, but it was never about our future life together or anything like that it, it was more reconnecting, I don’t know like patching up an old blanket. And he sent me a couple of drawings that he’d done. But I did tell him I was probably going to transfer and that Chicago might be one of the places I would go.”

“Where else might you have transferred to?”

“Austin.”

“That’s it, either Austin or Chicago?”

“Well, maybe Braemore, I mean you’d have to get some administrative discount on tuition, right?” Tami laughed.

“And of course, you’d move back in with us to save on rent, right?”

“Mom, are you trying to talk me into breaking the engagement?”

“No. I’m not trying to do that, just teasin’ you a little, but I’m trying to figure out how this happened. How much did the two of you talk after he came back for Thanksgiving two years ago?”

“Some. I mean, we weren’t emailing every day or texting or anything like that, it was once or twice a week. I guess it was more keeping in touch than anything else. Actually I’ve had more contact with him than I have with Tyra.”

“That bothers you.”

“I guess. Tyra’s---She can be really nice, but she’s always going to have a lot of sharp edges and I don’t know I’ve gotten this sense of resentment about her.”

“What, like she resents you for having a mom and dad who are still together? Or that she was known as the town slut?”

“No, she loves you, and I figure you two talk a couple times a week, more than you and I do.”

“Do you resent that? ‘Cause you were angry and jealous sophomore year when I was coaching the volleyball team.”

Julie sighed. “I did at the time, now I don’t; I mean it’s okay if I don’t talk to you during the week, ‘cause I’ll talk to dad.

“I guess I just don’t have very many friends. I had Lois in junior high and some of high school, but then she started mooning over Tim every second.”

“Like half the girls in Dillon.”

“It was different with her; it was all she’d talk about. And if I started talking about something else she’d either steer it back to Tim or get pissed that I had changed the subject. I’m so glad I never told her about his living with us that couple of weeks.

“Freshman year I met Matt and Landry and Tyra. That’s been it. I wasn’t really friends with anyone at college.”

“You don’t see Tim as a friend?”

“I do, but I don’t. I mean we never had any classes together or hung out in school, not that he was in school that much,” Julie grinned. “I mean, I sat with him and Matt and some of the other players a few times at lunch. And he’s always been extra nice to me, and he’s---he’s like an old soul, he’s wiser than he’d ever let you see. Just, I can tell if we hung out on a regular basis he’d drive me banana’s eventually ‘cause he’d you know, pull a Riggins.” Julie twisted a lock of hair in her hand.

“With Tyra, I have this feeling that we’re gonna drift apart. I think she’s always gonna be close to you, and I’m not jealous about that, but it’s like I can see our friendship fading away.”

 

* * *

 

 

Eric squinted and ran his hand through his hair. “I’ve been goin’ over that day before State last year when you came in my office and told me you and Julie were getting’ married.”

“’No until the sun burns out.’ That’s pretty definitive.”

Eric shook his head.  “I’m sorry about that. I should have apologized sooner, but I wanted to do it in person, not over the phone or by email, but in person.

"You deserve that.

"It’s just---that was probably the worst time you could have chosen to come see me, without an appointment mind you, and tell me that. Well, maybe the day I got fired from Dillon. I mean, I was prepping for State or tryin’ to, dealing with all of that media nonsense, you know what that’s like, finding out East Dillon wasn’t gonna have a football program anymore, Tami getting’ the job offer in Philadelphia and the two of us talking---well **not** talking about that, having Julie come home early and making me wonder if she had another run in with her TA or his wife, having Buddy barge in on me every five minutes, worrying about Vince and his dad, Buddy hectoring me about taking the job at Dillon and telling me I’d have the entire state at my disposal in terms of resources, and me knowing he already had at least three plans and schemes set in motion and then you come in and say what you said.

"I liked that you had the manners and grace to ask my permission, your mom and grandmother would be proud of that. And so would your dad.

“But I was also thinking about what had happened the year before, when you left.

"That scared Julie. Really scared her.

"And it broke her heart.

"It scared Tami.

"And it scared me at the time and I got that feelin’ again when you came to my office. Because I started thinkin’ and wonderin’ if you would do that again. That if you and Julie did get married and move to Chicago or wherever and you ran into a rough patch or your grandmother or Shelly died, if you would leave my daughter by herself. And I admit I got angry thinkin’ that. Why did you leave without telling Julie?”

“I—it’s hard –I just had to get out of Dillon. That’s what I told Julie last year. I mean she was applying to all these schools that were in Boston and Los Angeles, halfway across the country-“

“Well Chicago is all the way across the country.”

“Yeah, I know. I just had to go. I’m sorry.  I told Julie I was sorry.

"I—I’ve been seeing a therapist for a while.”

“Really.”

“Last year after I got settled in Chicago, I called Mrs. Taylor and asked her about counseling and if she could maybe recommend anyone in Chicago. She talked to some people and I went to one guy who was a little too New Agey. The guy I’m seeing now is cool, I go once a month. He’s quirky, he always wears a tie, but always has bare feet. And he never asks how I’m doing, he figures that’ll come out during the session.”

“Does Julie know about this?”

“Yeah. She told me that she and her mom had talked about me talking to someone after my dad died, but I left before she got to suggest it to me.”

“How does she feel about it?”

“She thinks it’s a good idea. She might come to a session on two after we get settled in.

“I love your daughter.

"I love Julie.

"I know that marriage isn’t easy, my parents are proof of that, it’s something you have to work at, Julie and I know that, but we’re willing to do that, to work at it.”

“Eric!! Eric Taylor!”


	6. Chapter 6

 

“That happens. You make friends in high school and it’s such an intense period of your life in so many ways, it’s like you work at your friendships so hard and you promise each other and yourself that you’re going to be friends forever and then you graduate and maybe have one last summer together and then---y’all go off in different directions, to different schools, in different states, sometimes on different continents. And you meet a whole bunch of new people and there are all these new experiences. And a lot of people use college as a way to make a fresh start, to reinvent themselves. People only know what you tell them, well not so much these days with Facebook and blogs and such. But you have people who were football players in high school who made it a daily thing to torment someone from the drama club every single day and by their second semester in college they had declared a theater and dance major. It’s a cliché, but it’s true, you really can find yourself in college.

“As for Tyra,” Tami sighed. “I don’t know, right now, she’s focused on her grades and studying, which---is good, but she needs to get out sometimes too. Skipping a class or sleeping in isn’t the biggest crime in the world. Tyra and I are always going to be close, and she and you may drift apart for a while, but I have the feeling you’ll get pulled closer together down the road, if only because of me. Does it bother you that you don’t have many friends?”

“I don’t know, I mean you and dad never hang out with other couples, the only time dad ever went out was if Buddy Garrity wanted to talk his ear off about some new scheme that he’d cooked up. You’ve gone out a couple times with people from school, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve had my bunko nights. Your dad isn’t friendly. I mean he is, but he’s not one to go and seek out people to hang out with or talk to. And he does have a lot of work to do being head coach, although I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be a head coach in the NFL. Your dad is polite and respectful and gracious, but he also doesn’t suffer fools, well not for long. He is so absorbed with football that he doesn’t have time for a lot of the stuff," Tami waved her hand in the air, “about popular culture, like Charlie Sheen or the Oscars. And that can hurt him because that’s what ends up getting talked about a lot these days, and if you don’t know about it, people look at you funny. I’ve already got some cocktail parties and get-togethers lined up at Braemore and your dad and I have argued about how many of them he’s gonna go to.”

“Let me guess, he started out at _‘I’ve got game tape to watch and game plans to draw up so the number is zero_ ’ and now he’s very grudgingly agreed to go to three of them. And even then he’s going to mutter and grumble and end up standing off in the corner by himself.”

Tami smiled. “Four, we settled on four. There’s one at the beginning of the school year that’s a welcome party for me and he knew it’d look bad if he wasn’t there. There are more in the fall but most of them are in the afternoon, so he actually does have the excuse of being in school or at practice. And high school football isn’t nearly as big a deal in Pennsylvania, well at least not in Philadelphia as it is in Texas, so he doesn’t have to spend the whole offseason looking at tape and making game plans and such.

“Does Matt have any friends besides Landry?”

“He’s friendly with the people at the gallery, he said they hang out once a week or so and he’s hung out with a couple of people from one of his classes, but if you’re asking if he seeks people out, I’d say no. Do you see that as a problem?"

“Well, it could be, but it could be fine, I don’t have enough information to say one way or another.” Tami stood up. “C’mon, let’s see how Gracie and Tim are doing.”

“How many times do you think Tim got stung? I think at least three.”

“Really?”

“Mom, it’s Tim Riggins.”

“Hmmm, I say he got stung twice.”

 

* * *

 

 

Eric winced. “God dammit.”

He looked at the corner of the bleachers and there was Buddy Garrity walking over to them. Eric looked at Matt. “C’mon, let’s go.” He started to walk off the field away from Buddy, who started jogging after him.

“Eric, hold on a minute. I’ve got something for you.” Eric sighed and stood with his arms crossed and a frown in his face. He didn’t take a single step towards Buddy making him come to Eric.

Buddy put his hand towards Matt. “Matt Saracen! How are you doing son? I don’t think I’ve seen you since the State game last year.”

“Lucky you,” Eric muttered under his breath.

“I’m doin’ pretty well in Chicago, working at an art gallery. I hear your bar is doing good.”

“Yeah, I’m thinkin and looking into expanding, add a few more pool tables, and hopefully open another location in Dallas or Austin.”

“Why not both?”

“Well, I do have some long range plans, but I’m gonna make sure the finances are in place and stable first. The liquor distribution will help out, but I’m not gonna get ahead of myself.”

“Buddy, I know you’d love to stay and find out what Matt has been doing the last six months but we need to get back home and help finish packing up for the movers.” Eric held his hands up in front of him. “And please don’t start asking or pleading me to take the head job at Dillon or ask if I’d be interested in consulting from Philadelphia. It’s gonna take a while for us to settle in, Tami finding her feet and me figuring out what I’ve got in terms of players at my new job. And I’m also gonna be teaching a couple classes, so…”

Buddy shook his head and smiled. “No, I’ve asked you and begged and pleaded and offered you the moon to come back to Dillon, you would have been the highest paid high school football coach in Texas history.”

“And you’d have moved into my house so you wouldn’t have to call me every half hour, you'd just start talkin’ through the wall.”

“I love football. We both love football, but in different ways and for different reasons. You’re really good at coaching and I’m a really good booster and supporter. Now, sometimes those two things don’t work well, they butt heads. And I did keep some things from you that hurt you and the team, and I’m sorry for that, but it’s because I love Dillon and what football represents in Dillon.

“Anyway, I have something for you and I wanted to give it to you before you and Tami and Gracie moved, rather than ship it and risk damaging it.”

“What is it?”

“A surprise and I’d really like Tami to see it. I have it in my truck, but I’d really like to give it to you at your house.”

Eric’s jaw clenched for a few seconds, then he smiled. “And I suppose you’d also like to stay for dinner as well.”

“Only if you let me buy it. You’ve gotta have Ray’s BBQ one last time.”

“A’ight, just make sure you get some veggie lasagna and bread for Julie. I’m gonna call Tami and let her know the plan.”

Eric pulled out his phone and called home. It rang three times then a male voice said, “Taylor residence, how can I help you?”

“Tim, why are you answering the phone? Where’s Julie?”

“She and Mrs. Taylor are out front, I’m---I’m handling Gracie Belle. What’s up?”

“Tell Mrs. Taylor that we’re on our way home and that Buddy Garrity is coming with us and he’s gonna be having dinner with us and he’s getting’ Ray’s BBQ. He’s calling in the order now so we should be home in about twenty minutes.”

“We’ll see you then.”

“Hey, how’d you do with that nest?”

“I got stung five times, but it looks like most of ‘em are dead. You’re supposed to give it about an hour and a half, but I haven’t seen any of them flying around.”

“Five times? You okay?”

“Yeah, I mean it hurts, but, I’ll be fine.”

“Well you let Tami help you out, you hear me?”

“Yes sir.”

“Ai’ght, we’ll see you in a few. Thanks for doing that Tim.”

“You’re welcome.”


End file.
